Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud

beats me tbh, I just checked and wondered

Still it is exorbitant network (ip) traffic for a solution that actually communicates “ip-less”… I expect the worst…

haha well, you’re not one of the optimistic types are you :wink:

but


look at this, its the same device in the same UDM pro

completely different story

nonetheless, Ive disabled internet on the bridges again (the updating of those bulbs takes forever), so let’s see what will happen.

Yeah, which is why I said, I take those values with a bucket of salt. As they were never accurate.

There are three spots to see data usage inside Unifi, and all values are different :sweat_smile:, and nowhere is it mentioned if it is local, internet or all traffic.

Many other brands fail with this as well, it’s not just Unifi.

Total Traffic for my Hue hub in the past month (which is actually about a week, since I connected and installed the Hub last Saturday).

But as I said, on other pages I see the same as you, but my HA server would also do several PB of data, which is nonsense of course…

If I check the same “Insights” page it shows a more logical usage for my HA server as well.

For comparison:


This is the Somfy TaHoma Switch, which needed an account from the start, even for local control and recently to enable the Local API you needed an account as well.

I would think you will have a very tough, if not impossible, path of updating Hue device firmware if you are blocking the hub from the internet.

If you are concerned about the Hue traffic, then I would recommend putting WireShark on a mirrored port and monitoring the end points and looking at the traffic to/from your Hue hub.

I don’t have any hue devices but I found this interesting.

ofc I meant after the updating had finished…

I can see why you might think that, but it’s actually not the case. Zigbee2mqtt has support for OTA firmware updates, Philips devices appear there and update just fine.

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This thread is about the Hue hub, not Zigbee2MQTT.

Well, some of it is — it’s a very long thread!

But, whether or not you are using the hub, there is is a reasonably easy alternate option for updating firmware.

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True. I have also a account. Created when I bought my bulbs. If they want read my data… What data will it be? When of where my bulbs are on or off and what color…

I read most of time: only needed when you want use it outside and control your bulbs. HA user’s have the mobile app to do.

Basicly I can give hub internet access and keep updating my bulbs and update my ios app.

Only hope that they not update the bulbs with some restriction so you can’t pair then with a zigbee dongle in future when they change or remove the API.

or feature… Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud - #283 by pcwii

We all know this one. I already have an account. Now blocked my hub and didn’t update my iOS app. But with an account I already “agree” with the idea they store things of me already. So I also can allow hub again to get internet access and update my iOS app to latest version.

sure, as do I.
but the link I posted refers to adding new functionality (Matter) which apparently deteriorated the user experience.
I didnt find out though how the author managed to actually actively install Matter. Other than connecting the Bridges to Google or the likes.

Which mine always have been too already :wink:

I did check the api response from the bridge but no mentioning of Matter, so I am not sure it already is on our bridges with the latest firmware.
only posted it because you talked about fearing new restrictions when updating…

heck thats it of course, the app sees when the bulbs require an update… silly me wondering how it could be with the bridge off the internet. its simply the app (which I do have up to date)

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When I reinstalled my Hue bridge last week in HomeKit it automatically chose the Matter link when I selected Siri & Apple Home inside the Hue app. It was updated some months ago to support this.

Some features I remembered from HomeKit were missing and the Contact Sensors didn’t work in Apple Home. So removed it and now paired it through HomeKit again.

If you pair it the HomeKit way by scanning the HomeKit code on the bottom I could add the Hue hub to HomeKit natively. Works faster and shows all sensors and buttons.

Matter being unstable, is not Hue’s fault though. Many other Matter devices are unstable as well in Apple Home.

Doesn’t sound like a lot alone, but pattern analysis can probably tell a lot about when you are home, what rooms you spend your time in, and maybe even more about your daily habits.

The local API has nothing to do with being able to pair with something else. It’s purely the control of the hub itself, which in turn controls the things connected to the hub. Zigbee itself is always 100% local.

Also most integrations that integrate with Hue will use the exact same local API as the HA integration uses.

For example I can link my Hue Hub to the Somfy hub I have in my home, which will communicate locally as well.

The HomeKit pairing process also works completely without using the Hue app. You would only need the Hue app to pair a light/sensor/button to the Hub, but everything else can be done through HomeKit.

It would be stupid for Hue to fully disable local API suddenly, as many other companies are reliant on that API which are in the WorksWithHue program.

But if they ever decided to go that route, you will always still be able to use a third party hub/dongle etc.

During the pairing of a Zigbee device the connection is not yet encrypted, so the data can be read and replicated to make it connect to something else. So ZHA and Z2M will keep working.

Usually the idea is just to aggregate as much data as possible and send it back to the mother ship. It doesn’t really need a use case for all snooped data sets, they can also find one later or just sell them raw. Having a device (like a hue bridge) in your local network can leak a lots of information about other devices on your network, when they are active and so on.

Then I’m screwed already with Alexa, Logitech Harmony Hub, HomeKit (using also outside of the house), Roborock and PicNic :slight_smile:

Only reason I blocked the internet was: Block updated and maybe shutdown API option in hub in future.


Data is pretty continuous